The most common skin types used for commercial products are normal, oily, dry and combination skin. Knowing your skin type is the beginning of giving your skin the proper skin care treatment to maintain good skin tone and condition.

In general, on the basis of how your skin feels and behaves, your skin type is identified. Other skin types include blemish-prone, sensitive skin and sun damaged skin.

Suitable as these skin types are in choosing products, it is not exactly the best way to know and understand your skin on a level that will really help it. This is perhaps the reason why you still experience dryness, oiliness, acne and other problems, even though the "right" products have been used for your selected skin type.

First of all, you have to remember, skin is never the same all throughout. Depending upon several factors such as genes, life style and habits, the skin changes. Add to this the fact that the problems you are experiencing may not be simply the result of lack of care. There are cases when skin diseases are the reasons.

First off, know the factors that affect your skin type. This can get tricky since almost everything can influence your skin and the condition it's in. Just looking and feeling your face is not enough to determine your skin type.

Factors Affecting Your Skin Type

Hormones

The first sets of factors affecting your skin are those within your own body. Hormonal changes brought on by your body's development influence your skin to a huge extent.

Drastic changes on the skin can be found in women due to the menstrual cycle. The same goes for periods of pregnancy and menopause. Especially in the puberty stage, men are also subject to these affects as hormones causes the body to develop.

Genes

Your genes also affect the tendency to acquire a certain skin type condition that is trait of your parents' own skin types. Anyhow, your skin type may not be necessarily same as your parents as there are many other factors influencing your skin.

Life Styles And Habits

Lifestyles and habits also affect your skin type and while these may seem external to your body, the way you conduct daily activities such as food, exercise, smoking and alcohol intake effect your body and therefore your skin as well.

Other Factors Affecting The Skin Type

The external factors such as weather and climate as well as your skin-care regimen of choice affects your skin type. The climates of areas you spend extended periods in influence how your body reacts. Humid areas cause excessive sweating and oil production where as cold climates tend to cause dry skin and flaking.

Skin Care Products

The skin care products also have an affects on your skin type. Using strong cleansers and exfoliates result in dry, sensitive skin whereas creams or moisturizers that have too much emollients will cause your skin to be oily.

Evaluating Your Skin Type

You should not evaluate your skin type right after you've washed your face because your skin is reacting to the water and cleansers you've put on it. You need to wait for four to five hours after you've washed for evaluation of your skin type.

This will give your skin time to recover from the cleansing and allow it to resume its "normal" activity. Also try to do this on a day you had not worn any makeup or put on creams so a more accurate evaluation of your skin type can be made.

Oily Skin

Take a piece of facial tissue and press it on different regions of your face. Hold the tissue against the light. If you find marks on the facial tissue, it means that you have oily skin.

This is the reason why you should carry out this evaluation when you are not wearing makeup or moisturizers since the oil may be caused by these substances.

Dry Skin

You are dealing with dry skin, if the general area of your face appears dry, feels tight and can see patches of skin flakes.

Combination Skin

On the other hand, if you observe that some areas are both dry and oily then you have combination skin.